London Care (Willow House)

Updated 11 May 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

London Care (Willow House) provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced.

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because people are often out and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people, a relative, registered manager, team leader, regional manager regional head of quality, quality manager, and 8 members of staff. We looked at care records of 7 people to see how their care and treatment was planned and delivered. Other records looked at included 6 staff recruitment files. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service along with a selection of the service's policies and procedures.

Updated 11 May 2023

About the service

London Care (Willow House) scheme provides care and support to older people and people with mental health needs living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. Willow House is a purpose-built block of flats on three levels, containing 40 flats. People remain independent and live in their own flat within their community. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care. There were 38 people living at the scheme at the time of this inspection.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were kept safe from avoidable harm because staff knew them well and understood how to protect them from abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so.

There were effective systems and processes in place to minimise risks to people. The assessments provided information about how to support people to ensure risks were reduced.

There were enough care workers deployed to keep people safe. Appropriate recruitment checks had been carried out for all care workers so suitable staff were employed.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

There were systems in place to ensure proper and safe use of medicines. Staff followed effective processes to assess and provide the support people needed to take their medicines safely.

People were protected from the risks associated with poor infection control because the service had processes in place to reduce the risk of infection and cross contamination.

There was a process in place to report, monitor and learn from accidents and incidents. Accidents were documented in a timely way which was in line with the service’s policy and guidance.

There was an effective training system in place. Care workers demonstrated good knowledge and skills necessary for their role.

Governance processes were effective and helped to hold staff to account, kept people safe, protected their rights and provided good quality care and support. Audits were used to good effect, which resulted in people achieving good outcomes.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for the service was requires improvement, (published on 28 November 2018).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.